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No beef with FHP, but if its standard operating procedures for you not to investigate anything criminal (battery,assault,domestic etc) *especially* when it occurs on the interstate or on a call for service, I also don't see the point in paying for a law enforcement agency to only investigate crashes. It seems that a civilian agency could investigate most of the crashes and cost tax payers much less then the sheriffs or local agencies can investigate the fatals or ones that require a cop. Its been done in many other areas of the state.

I understand the need for "specialty" agencies to investigate fraud,drugs and other criminal portions, but a traffic crash is a civil matter and does not require a law enforcement officer to do. I always thought your agency did more than that, but you say is standard procedure.....

I don't know who the "you" is whom you are referring to. However you are confused and have no idea what troopers do on a daily basis. You must be one of the Pinellas sheriff's do boys!

A few post up someone explained that not working criminal was sop. Not a sheriff do boy or anything. I just sat to see tax payer money (my tax dollars) used as best as possible. Which is why I was inquiring about SOPs.

I'm amazed that Agriculture Cops sit in shacks and serve no purpose, most lie about how many loads they inspect every shift and yet instead of cleansing this pointless burden on the state budget FHP is in the crosshairs. Do away with Ag Law first law makers. Then we could get a pay bump with the surplus and fix the vacancy issues

Thank you for the insight, it does seem fair that we look at doing stuff better. I as a tax payer don't think I need to pay for two agencies to do what one can do.

Ok with this statementioned as a tax payer. Why do we need all these jails. Have the sheriff take all the jails and save tax payer money. All jails run by the sheriff. O wait the sheriff does not care about the jails. This will eliminate state employees and the county can absorb all the facilities, operations and jailers. Win win for tax payers. Correct

The Department of Agriculture conducts many different specialized types of investigations that involve multiple jurisdictions. The people in the shacks only represent a small portion of that agency.

Besides CVE I'm not sure what FHP has to justify a $450.3 million dollar budget. Troopers are clearly stating that they won't/or are advised not to by SOP's ,work criminal calls from their calls for service, on this page and that they only have to investigate crashes, which can be done by a civilian at half if not more of the cost it takes to have a trooper do it.

If all trooper positions were moved into civilians who were paid $13.00 an hour, then we don't have to pay for take home vehicles, guns, equipments, pursuit vehicles, liability from use of force and shootings, less on duty wrecks, and no high liability training would save the tax payers (myself) a lot of money. In fact, the states pays around $80,000 dollars a year just in compensation towards a trooper **AFTER** you put in the health insurance, retirement benefits, life insurance and liability insurance.

If you paid a civilian $25,000 a year, required them to be in a 401K pension plan rather then the state pension, no more expensive vehicles and reduce the equipment the state has to buy, we could probably hire more civilian to work crashes that don't require any criminal investigation. Then when it is criminal and a civilian can't do it, you can call the local authorities to do it. Again, someone tell me exactly what FHP has that no other agency can offer that is worth the tax payers footing $450.3 million dollars, and that doesn't include this step plan and pay raises you guys want.

Given the previous responses on here, I'm pretty sure all i will receive is (TROLL GO AWAY) or some other derogatory statement rather than a legit response as to why the tax payers, who pay for you, should continue to pay for you.

Ok with this statementioned as a tax payer. Why do we need all these jails. Have the sheriff take all the jails and save tax payer money. All jails run by the sheriff. O wait the sheriff does not care about the jails. This will eliminate state employees and the county can absorb all the facilities, operations and jailers. Win win for tax payers. Correct

Plus we can stop advertising for jailers on the radio and TV saving tax payers money. Convicts watching convicts .Oh wait there's state employees too, that's why we can't retain them because State of Florida will never pay enough. Let's do it, take over everything get rid of all state law enforcement and corrections. Why do a little bit. Take it all. Save the tax payers of FLORIDA these poor people.

Ok with this statementioned as a tax payer. Why do we need all these jails. Have the sheriff take all the jails and save tax payer money. All jails run by the sheriff. O wait the sheriff does not care about the jails. This will eliminate state employees and the county can absorb all the facilities, operations and jailers. Win win for tax payers. Correct

Some counties should do just that, like they have with medical examiners. Some counties share these responsibilities between multiple counties depending on the volume. Some counties combine utilities, schools etc.. so save the tax payers money. However, we are talking about STATE money right now. Not county taxes. County taxes do not pay for FHP, that comes from State taxes and sales tax. Which, to attract business owners and encourage employment in this area, we should always look at maintaining the lowest in the nation without sacrificing safety. So why should FHP continue to be justified if the sheriff has to respond and handle things. I pay my county funds or city taxes to have my sheriffs department patrol to deter crime in my area, if they are responding to your calls and arresting people from your stuff, then I don't see the point in me paying for both!

My honest opinion, is my sheriffs department should not get involved in your state matter unless its an officer safety issue. They need to be patrolling my neighborhood and keeping people from stealing etc. FHP should be able to arrest people on the interstate or from their calls for service without tying up local law enforcement. FHP is a law enforcement agency, which is what us state tax payers pay for.

Ok. Here is the thing about being a taxpayer. And i don't want you to take it the wrong way. I'm also a taxpayer. But here is another thing. Fhp isn't funded by what most of us consider to be "taxes". The income tax we pay every year doesn't go to FHP it goes to the feds. The property taxes don't go to FHP, it mostly goes to the county. I would guess that some of our funding comes from sales tax and gasoline tax. But considering there are only 20,000,000 residents but there are over 113,000,000 visitors in Florida every year, they are probably spending more money to fund FHP than you and I are. You also have to remember that FHP partially funds the state budget with the tickets we write. FHP also partially funds the counties with the tickets we write. Let's say that FHP writes 750,000,000 tickets a year. Let's say the average ticket is 200 dollars. That ends up being a ton of money spread throughout state and local government. And that's not counting the money generated from the commercial vehicle enforcement unit. FHP is also partially funded by revenue from tags, titles, driver's licenses, DL reinstatement fees after a suspension, etc etc. Now I'm here to tell you that i didn't join a traffic enforcement agency because i want to make money for the government. But our discussion is about being worth it.